All right, hey Mercy Hill, welcome at all of our locations today. I uh man, it was great to be gone, but I am really, really glad to be back. All right, we're gonna be diving into Luke chapter 8 today.
So, if you have a copy of scripture, you can take and turn with me to Luke 8. As you guys are finding Luke 8, man, we got some pretty cool stuff to celebrate today. Y'all, celebrate this with me. 241 middle school and high school students went to camp last week, and we praise God for that. Um Man, hey guys, Psalm 145 tells us one generation will commend the Lord's works to the next.
We step in a lineage of 2,000 years of people prioritizing the generation behind them rather than their own preferences. And so for us, I don't know, man, we get more excited about stuff like kids' week and student camp and college services and things like that because we know that is where the future is. Guys, 30 leaders went on to student camp and just blessed them. I mean, just pouring their life out for our middle school and high schoolers. We had eight decisions for Christ, 39 for baptism.
And get this, over 100 of our middle school and high school students said they want to go on a mission trip next year. Can we praise God for that?
So Man, it's just incredible. Hey, listen, if you are a parent or a grandparent or an uncle or aunt or you have friends in a community group with that they have kids and you're close to them or whatever, if we love the next generation, one of the things that we're going to do is try to set them up really well. I want to give you guys a save the date, August 21st and 24th. You guys who have been around here know that that is back to school weekend. We do this every year.
It's one of those big focal points for our year because here's why. Man, we want to get them off and running well. We want to kick off really well everything God is going to do for our age-based ministry.
So, guys, that weekend is kindergarten commissioning. We're going to pray for parents. We're going to pray for teachers. Our middle school and high school is going to launch that weekend. College will be launching that weekend.
Like, you don't want to miss it. I know this for me, okay? Our kids aren't going to miss like the first day of school because it's so important, right? Like, you get really behind really fast. Football starts this week for the Hopper House.
We're not missing the first couple practices. I don't care if you're sick, hurt, whatever, you're going. Right? And the reason is because it's so important to get, you know, get off and running really well. You guys know that.
We want to set these kids up well for their semester. And so we're going to pray that we're going to have a huge weekend that weekend. Hey, be here. I know some of you are thinking, yeah, but we already have plans that weekend. I know.
That's why I'm telling you now, so that you can change those plans. All right. And so that you can then come to this because there's probably nothing more important than getting these kids off and rolling in the right way for their discipleship for this fall. Let's dive into Luke chapter 8. All right.
Luke chapter 8 is a highly applicable sermon where we're going to see a couple of stories about Jesus that come together and show us that he has the power over sickness. And death. Listen, if you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, you're at one of our campuses today, you're just kind of checking things out. Man, we got people from all over. But here's one thing that all of us have in common today: either you know somebody who needs physical healing, or you need physical healing yourself.
Is that not true? I mean, I just covered every single person here, every single person at our awesome campuses. Like, we all either need physical healing or we know somebody who needs physical healing. And maybe you could put in that camp, maybe some kind of real spiritual darkness or mental healing in terms of anxiety, depression, whatever it is. Like, we know somebody or we ourselves need God to take the gloves off, to step in, to touch, and to heal.
And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to step in line with James chapter 5. We are going to call the church forward to come together to be anointed with oil and pray to be healed and ask God to give gifts of healing today. I'm anticipating dozens, I pray, of people that are going to be healed across our church. I don't know that.
I don't know what God's going to do. That's totally within his secret will, but it's incumbent upon us to go ask.
Now, I know that some of you just got really uncomfortable, okay? I get that. You're like, man, I didn't know the gifts are still. Working like that, or are we supposed to? Maybe you come from a real conservative background, you're like, man, I don't know.
Others of you are charismatics without a seatbelt, okay? And you have been waiting for a day like this for a while at Mercy Hill, all right? Hey, either way, what we're gonna try to do is we're gonna try to find scripturally sort of the middle of these two things and say very plainly: praying in faith doesn't mean that God will heal you. But not praying in faith pretty much means that God won't heal you, right? Like God moves upon the prayers of his people, okay?
Our prayers, all my good country boys in the room, all my Northeast campus in the room, okay, our prayers are the bullet to God's tanorite.
Okay, some of you guys know what that means, all right? And it's gonna be the catalyst that sparks it all off and blows it up, all right?
So if we pray, we have an opportunity to see God do huge things. That doesn't mean God is some kind of way like bound to do what we want him to do. Guys, God has all kinds of reasons that he has us walking through hard things and suffering. And we don't know what all those things are, but it's incumbent upon us to pray. In faith, because we know that he can heal.
Here's the big idea this weekend. Jesus has a heart for healing. He all but can't help but heal. He will heal one day. You know this if you're a Christian.
We don't talk about healing and resurrection as if it's if. We talk about it as if it's win. It may be now, it may not be now. If it's then in the next life, as opposed to now, that doesn't make God any less good.
Okay, his timeline is not our timeline. But if we know that God can heal then, why would we not beg him to do it right now? There's not a promise. But we optimistically say, God, we want you to do this now. We're going to pray that you will do it now.
In this church, we have seen rheumatoid arthritis healed. We have seen pancreatic cancer that looked one way real, real bad prayed over. And when it, with the next time it got prayed over, it didn't look nearly, nearly as bad. We've seen kind of autoimmune. We've seen gastrointestinal type stuff.
My own daughter's heart, she was supposed to have a surgery at six months old, and now she's eight years old and thriving and doing well. And the cardiologist says, I told you guys a couple years ago that she's going to be fine. I mean, we've seen healings happen. We don't know what God is going to do. That is a reason to pray, not a reason not to pray.
Okay? Not knowing what he's going to do, that's a reason to beg him. That's not a reason not to beg him, okay?
So let's ask the Lord to give us some gifts of healing here today. Luke chapter 8.
Now, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler in the synagogue, and falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. And as Jesus went, the people pressed all around him.
Now, Jesus is returning. In Luke 8, 40, and the Bible says that the crowds were waiting for him. This is important for us at Mercy Hill because you're going to know the way we talk about ministry here. It's just important to know if you're going to be here. Guys, the book of Luke speaks overwhelmingly positively about crowds, okay?
And what we understand is that crowds is something that we want to be excited about.
So, like, when we stand up and we cheer because 241 kids went to camp, if your heart posture towards that was, why is it all about the numbers? You're trying to get more spiritual than the Bible.
Okay, what we understand is that in that crowd, people are going to move from the crowd to the family. Most people are part of the crowd before they're part of the family.
So I pray for the day we got a thousand kids going to camp because they're not going to stay in the crowd. I don't want to just stay on the fringe, but we want to see more people in the crowd so that they can move in and get all the way connected to the family. The crowd here is waiting for Jesus. That's a good thing. Man, we want to see crowds.
We want to see lots of people, but Jairus is part of them. And he falls down and he implores Jesus.
Now, what the Bible tells us here is that Jairus is, in verse 41, a ruler of the synagogue.
Now, what does that mean? He's a worship leader, man. He puts the worship thing together. He's in with the in crowd. He's in with the Jewish elite.
But you know what? When his daughter is sick, he knows where to go. And he decides probably, I mean, you guys know Jesus and the Jews had beef, okay? The prevailing Jews, the elite among them, the religious leaders. He probably ends up at great personal cost.
Coming and falling down before Jesus and imploring Jesus to do something for his daughter. And I think we got to stop here and make a point that I think we would really be hurting ourselves if we missed this idea. Guys, sometimes, this is what happens with Jairus.
Sometimes it's tragedy that sends us looking for Jesus.
Sometimes it's going through something really, really hard.
Sometimes it's a diagnosis.
Sometimes it's a financial strain.
Sometimes it's a marital problem.
Sometimes it's a breakup.
Sometimes it's a friend group having a lot of issues.
Sometimes tragedy sends us looking for Jesus. And I wanna call you to the posture of Jairus here for just a moment because, listen, I've learned, man, I've watched people, I know my own heart. When you go through something really hard, Generally speaking, one of two things happens. Either you get real cynical about God or you get real serious about God. And it's generally one of those two things.
Now maybe you're going through something hard right now. My question for you is, is it sending you like Jairus looking for Jesus as the answer and everything else is moving out of the way? Man, I don't care about my former position. I don't care about what people are gonna think because I'm going to the one who can heal in this life and the next, who can fill the emptiness in this life and the next. Maybe that's where you are.
And if you're there today and you're going through a tragedy that sent you looking for Jesus, I pray that today's gonna be a big step in that journey for you. Others of you, though, and I mean this, guys, some of us have just not gone through stuff that's really that hard. Many of us have, but some haven't. A lot of young people in this church, sometimes young people don't go through something hard until they're later, you know, until they're older and it's later in their life. Maybe you just haven't experienced something like that yet.
I'm gonna tell you something right now. There will I bet you like gyrus, okay? And I know this personally. You can be absolutely on top of the world, and 90 days later, feel like things are so dark you can't see the bottom of it. It happens, man.
It happens in our life, great reversal. If you haven't gone through something hard yet, I'm telling you, there's going to be something in your life that hurts you more than you could ever imagine, hurts you more than you thought you could hurt. There's going to be things that come up in your life where you don't know this yet, but the reality is that David talks about soaking his bed with tears, and some of you have never done that before, but it's going to come. I know this is very encouraging.
Okay. Here's what I'm telling you. Listen, if you have not experienced that yet. Then, what you need to understand is that pain, trial, brokenness, that is part of this life. It is part of the life that Jesus is coming to put back together.
Okay? But if you haven't experienced it yet, when you do, what will you draw upon to move you through that time? When the storm is on the shore, that is not the time to try to build the dam. You need to have storehouses that you are building up of faith reserves to draw upon during that time. And I pray that you'll do things like this: get in the flywheel, gather groups, give go to be able to build those things up.
Because this will come in your life at some point. But when the bottom falls out, where will you turn? Maybe the bottom has fallen out for you, like Jairus here today. Are you getting cynical? Or are you getting serious?
Certainly, gyrus. It's getting serious. And he falls down before Jesus. Man, I need you. I pray that'll be some of us today.
Many powerful testimonies begin with a broken heart. Many times a future powerful testimony, it begins with paying now. Let's take a turn in this story, all right?
So, man, we got Jairus' daughter, but we got another story that kind of just interjects right in between. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.
So, this is not just a physical problem, now it has turned into a financial problem. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, who was it that touched me? When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surrounding you and are pressing in on you.
And Jesus said, someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, This is so good. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.
Now, the story takes a big turn here, right? Jairus is practicing something that many of us are going to practice today right here at this altar, right at the altars at these campuses, and it's called intercessory faith. Intercessory prayer.
Now, what does that mean? It means that Jairus is interceding for his daughter. He's not coming for his own healing. He's coming for hers. But now the story shifts, right?
And now the story is not about somebody else's healing. The story is about her own healing because she has had this issue of blood for 12 years.
Now, this issue of blood is something that is taking her finances, it's taking her physical health, it's taking her social health and life. It's stealing her dreams. You know, the book of Leviticus tells us that when a woman goes through an issue of blood, what monthly, what happens is she is to separate for a couple of days from the rest of the people. There is an isolation period, and then she comes back into the camp and comes back into social life. This woman has been dealing with an issue of blood for 12 years.
Physically, she's broken. Financially, she's broken. And maybe worst of all, She is in a state of uncleanliness, which means in terms of their Levitical law, which means socially she is isolated. Y'all, it is possible that another human has not touched this woman in 12 years. Not a hug.
Not a kiss on the cheek. Can you imagine the dreams that are dying? Every single day. She is broken. Can you imagine what social isolation like that would be?
I remember during COVID, which I know we all want to just crawl in a fetal position, okay, starting thinking about it. But you guys remember the social isolation? And the distancing and how hard psychologically those things are, especially on our young people. I'll never forget this. We went to get Faith Ann ear tubes or something like that.
Go in the surgical center a year into COVID. They are in the surgical center. You got to walk up to this booth and tell them whether you got the shot or not. Vaccinated, and they're gonna put one color on you if you do, and one color on you if you don't. I said, Man, I have no idea what HIPAA means.
I never have, okay? But this feels like a violation of it, all right? I feel like this, I'm being violated right now. You got to put these wristbands on, and I'm just going to leave it to y'all's imagination. Which color wristband I had on.
Okay, y'all can just decide for yourself which one you think fits me. But I was like, you know, it's like, hey, you on that side, you on this side. Think about all the social distancing that we went through and how psychologically hard that is.
Okay, that was a few months or whatever it was. Think about 12 years. Of extreme isolation. My point is: the woman is so broken. And Jesus has such a heart to heal.
She comes up, she slinks up, she hides. She comes up and she touches his garment and boom. The power of Christ goes out from him and she is healed. This is the same power, y'all, one day that will carry us through the escaton for millennia after millennia with no tears and no brokenness and no death. And the power just goes out from him.
And Jesus knows the power has gone out from him, and so he says, I love this.
Sometimes I wonder if Jesus ever just looked at the disciples and just did the hand-forehead emoji.
Okay, I mean, because look what he says. Jesus says, Who is it that touched me? And they all denied it. Peter said, Master. The crowds surround you and are pressing in on you.
It's like what Peter is saying: Jesus, hello, man. They're all sort of touching you.
Okay. What do you mean, who touched me? Who is this guy? Jesus. You know, it's like, I can just imagine Jesus kind of looking at him like, Peter.
You honestly think I don't know, don't you? You really think I don't know who touched me. You think that I'm asking this question because I don't know. I mean, we've, Peter, we've done all we're healing people every day. We're doing thousands of battles, you know, people getting fed, people getting resurrected, but you really think I don't know.
It's almost like he just is trying to say, Peter, you need to rest your pretty little head and realize, bud, you're playing checkers, I'm playing chess, okay? I got a little more here that I'm doing. Why does Jesus ask? Who touched me? And here's why.
Because he is not. He is not okay. And he is not going to be uh satisfied. With this woman having a half healing, because Jesus don't do that. Her half-healing was physical, right?
Like she wanted to physically be healed. Great, I'm glad. What a miracle, right? We're all gonna experience that miracle one day where the power goes out and we are fully healed for all time and forever. But Jesus is not content.
With her half-healing, he wants to know who touched me so that she can be brought out of the shadows, so that she can be brought out of the shame, so that he can, and this is interesting, it's the only place in the scripture where he uses this name for someone, where in the presence of all of the crowd, he can look at her and he can say, daughter. He wants that for her. She would be okay with slinking away and living in that shame that she's been in for 12 years, not for Jesus. He didn't come for half healing. And he didn't come, listen, he also didn't come to make us believe that it's all about us.
Jesus heals. I pray that God's going to heal some people today. I pray we're going to see dozens of dispensations of the gift, the Holy Spirit for healing today, and just boom, all over this place and all over our campuses. I pray that, okay? When that happens, if it happens.
You know who gets the glory for it? God gets the glory for it. It's his fame, it's his renown, it's his healing. We are his children.
So it's not just about her. Your daughter, you need to come forward and stand in the healing that I have granted you so that all of them will believe.
so that they will see something in you. Guys, that's why we call you forward to baptism. It's why we say, hey, when God has healed you spiritually, come and let the world know. I got asked one time early on at Mercy Hill, a family said, Hey, our child has placed faith in Christ. Praise God.
We want you to come do a private baptism in our backyard with our family. I said, There ain't no way.
Well, what do you mean? We want it to be an intimate ceremony.
Well, I don't know what you want it to be or not, but that ain't what it is. You know, I was like, hey, what, you know. After you do the private baptism, why don't you throw yourself a surprise birthday party?
Okay, that makes about as much sense.
Alright? Because it undercuts the whole idea of the thing. The whole idea of the baptism is that God would receive the glory in front of the people for what he has done. It's about his fame and renown. It ain't about how it made you feel.
That's not the idea.
So he has this woman coming out of the shadows so that, look what he says: daughter, your faith has made you well. You are going to come out of the shadows here, and you are going to experience the fullness of this healing. You know, these stories, y'all, they have a spiritual application. They have a physical application. We're going to pray today.
But the spiritual application is this: you know, we need to think about what God is wanting us to do in terms of salvation because some of us are not saved. And it's a very similar story here. You're broken and you're ashamed. You're broken and you're in the shadows. That's all of us apart from Christ.
Now, we may be loud and boisterous and living out loud and putting it all out there, but we're covering up, man. We're covering up for something that we lost all the way back in the garden. God wants to give it back to us through His gospel message. And I pray today, just like this woman, that you will reach out and touch the fringe of His garment. I know that for some of us, stories like this mess with us a little bit theologically.
Okay, we're like, Well, wait a minute.
Okay, I thought Jesus is supposed to awaken faith in you and give you a gift of faith. That's the only way you can come to Him. Or, you know, do I mean people argue about this stuff? Do I reach for Jesus or does Jesus reach for me? Do I have to have my heart awakened, or is my reaching for him part of what awakens my heart?
Churches will fight over these things and even split themselves apart. It's unbelievable the order of how salvation events work. Ain't it just like humans to want to gather up and argue about something that we all just ought to stand in awe over? That we all just ought to be like man I don't know exactly how all this, but here's what I know. I know that I'm not who I once was.
I know that I got turned inside out. I know I was dead and now I'm alive. I know I was in a pit and I was stuck and now my feet are on a rock instead of miry clay. That's what I know. And it seems like we should stand more in awe of that than wanting to argue and fight and split churches over the order of how all of this stuff happens.
Here's what happens in this story: some kind of way, faith is awakened in her. She has the faith to reach out and touch his garment, and she's healed. Listen to me: that same garment potentially that she touched for healing was ripped from Jesus' back and thrown down when he was beaten and nailed to a cross for your sin. What you think about that? The power was there to heal her.
But Jesus was not content simply for that power. He would go all the way to the cross. And we would see resurrection in his life because you and I aren't just looking for a physical healing. that will end up reversing one day, end up in death one day. Man, but God is after our resurrection that will go on for all eternity.
And this is what Jesus has done for us.
Now, the story's not over because Jairus enters back into the scene, right? I wonder how he was. He was probably getting a little fidgety at this point.
Okay, come on, we gotta go here. While he was speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher any more. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear, only believe, and she will be well. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the child.
And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping.
Now, this is a little confusing, but I want to make sure you understand. I mean, every commentary is going to agree. He's not saying she's not literally dead. What he's getting at is When Jesus is on the scene. Death is more like sleep because there's an end and you wake up from it.
Okay, that's kind of what he's getting at here. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead, because she was. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, Child, arise. That's interesting, okay? Jairus' name is actually to awaken.
That is what his name means. It's almost as if, wait, 12 years, wait, the girl, 12 years, Jairus, wait, 12 years with issue of blood. Jairus, your name actually means awaken. Your name is this idea of arise. It's almost like God has had some stuff in the works here for a long time for this moment to dispense this gift of healing.
And I wonder how many of us. God has been working for a long time to bring us to this moment, today, because this is the day when he gives a gift and he gets the glory for it. Gyrus Name, ch uh awaken, arise. He says, Child, arise, and her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed her.
That something should be given for her to eat, and her parents were amazed, but he charged them not to tell anyone. Y'all. This is funny. They thought that he had the power over sickness, but they didn't think he had the power over death. Right.
Why else would you tell Jesus, man? Don't worry about it no more. Like, I know you could have saved her if you would have been here. Same thing Mary and Martha kind of said, right? Like, if you'd have been here, Lazarus, but now that he's dead, right?
So they even them who believed in Christ, they had this hard line, demarcation. Man, you might be able to heal and keep somebody, but once they're dead, they're dead. And by the way, do you guys know that we've managed to raise an entire generation that has never seen the movie The Princess Bride?
Okay, and I know some of you guys know where I'm going for this. The girl was not mostly dead, she was all dead. And there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead, okay? And all dead, they're like, Jesus can't do anything about it. Sick and ailing, they can, but they're missing the point that Jesus actually has the power over both sickness and death, which is really good news for us because those two things happen to be some of our greatest fears in the entire world, okay?
But he has power over both. And what does Jesus say? He looks at Jairus and he says to him, man, she's not dead. She's sleeping. He looks at him and he says, hey, don't fear, verse 50.
Only believe. Don't fear. Only believe. Now contrary to what many of us think. Courage is not the opposite of fear.
Belief is the opposite of fear.
Now belief leads to courage. Right? But when we anchor our belief in the right thing, it produces courageous feelings in our heart that will overcome fear. I think about this for us.
So this year, or last year, actually, mid-year, Anna got us to join the pool.
Okay, so we've now joined a pool. The clampets load up and go to the pool in Summerfield.
Okay, it's awesome. But anyway, my daughter, Faith Ann, this is awesome because this year is the first year that she, and you guys know her story. She has an on syndrome very delayed developmentally. This is the first year where she understands we're going to the pool and she loves it. Like she'll start doing sign language for pool and she wants to jump in and it's not a fight to get her in the water and she wants to stay for an hour.
I mean, it's just a huge blessing for us.
Now, you guys have had kids like this. You know, your kids are probably younger than Faith Ann, but I think about Faith Ann. This is the first year where Faith Ann wants to get on the side of the pool and jump into daddy's arms, you know, and jump into mama's arms and brother's arms, right? And you've seen this with kids, like maybe your own kids. The first time a child decides they're gonna jump from the side to your arms in a pool.
It is not, they don't get the courage to do that because they think that they're not going to go into the water. They don't get the courage to do that because they all of a sudden think they can swim when they're a year and a half old. You can see their little wheels spinning in their mind. The second they decide, I trust you to catch me, is the same moment that they decide to jump. Fear is not overcome by courage.
Fear is overcome by belief. I believe you're going to catch me. It creates the courage for me to want to jump. You can say it like this: our courage is based in believing that Jesus has power over sickness and death. Guys, the same one who dispensed These gifts of healing.
He also is the same one who was resurrected from the grave after his crucifixion. And ascended on high and sent the Spirit into our lives. My point is: if we believe in His power. And we believe in what his promises say about the future. That I don't know what's going to happen today, but I know it's going to happen in 10,000 years.
I know it's going to happen in the kingdom that is to come. Then I will begin to try to grab from that kingdom, pull it back into the now in terms of my prayer life. Verse 52: Do not weep, for she is not dead, but she is sleeping. She was absolutely dead. But when Jesus is on the scene, death has lost its sting.
It sort of turned into sleep. Like, man, we're going to wake up from it. That's the whole point. We're going to resurrect. We're going to wake up.
And if we understand that about then, y'all, it begins to inform our prayer life now. This little girl, 12-year-old girl, pale, dead, gone, now alive, eating, reunited with her. Her parents. We, that is all, that, if you're a believer. That will be our story in the end.
If you're not a believer, I don't know what you're banking on.
Okay, I have no idea. You know, I mean, restoration for all the wrongs of the world to be put right, you know, for healing in your life. I don't know what you're banking on if you're not a Christian, but if you're a believer. What happened here will happen for us, but it will happen ultimately.
So, why not pray that it happened now? Here's the application point for this weekend. Y'all, trust that God can heal. And let's pray that he will. Let's trust that he can and pray that he will.
I don't know if he's going to or not. And some of us are going to continue to walk through hard things in this life. And in those times, we cling to Romans 4. All right, that all these afflictions, they produce in us perseverance and character and hope.
Okay, we just have to trust that. I mean, how many of us right now know this? We know what it's like to, I mean, in consecutive breaths, we pray, God. God, give my kids faith. And then the next prayer we pray.
Give them a life where they don't really need it. May make everything awesome. Health, wellness, great friends, awesome time at school. You know, that's what and it's like sometimes I don't know what God is doing, but sometimes those things are at odds. It's like, okay, you want them to be strong in the faith, and they're gonna have to learn how to pick up stuff that's heavy.
And and that's hard. And I don't understand it all, okay?
So I know, listen, there's gonna be things that we pray for today, maybe they happen. There's gonna be things that we pray for today that maybe they don't happen. I don't know. But I do know this, if we can anchor our minds and hearts... In this Christ.
What is the whole point of this series, Walking with Jesus? The more you walk with him, the more you want to. The more you know him, the more of him you know, the more you want to get to know. And the more of him that we know, here's what we're going to understand. Jesus, whatever you're going to do in this life, I don't really know.
But I know these are pictures of what you're going to do there. And if these are pictures of what you're going to do there, then I want to pray them and ask for you to do them now. Man, people go through hard stuff. Adder and Iron Ann Judson lost three children on the mission field, then and died. You know, I I think about um Think about Martin Luther.
Story about Martin Luther. Martin Luther's praying fervently that his daughter. Would not be killed by the plague, and she's sick with the plague. And he's praying, and he's praying, and he's praying, and she dies. And when the people are nailing her coffin shut, he cries out, hammer away, for she will rise again in glory.
See, it's actually counterintuitive. It's not about knowing exactly what he's going to do today. That's not the point.
Some of you may have grown up in a system where, like, if you have enough faith, then God will heal you. I can't think of anything more destructive to say to somebody. I can't think of anything more depressing to say to somebody. I have no idea if God's going to heal or not. That's not where the anchor is.
The anchor is in, we know what he will do then. And so we pray. That back into our present right now. And so that's what we're going to do today. All right.
James 5:14. If anyone among you is sick, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. We're going to pray. We're going to anoint with oil. Our elders are going to do what elders do.
Man, they're going to pray over you guys today. And we're going to hopefully see people get healed, see people get freed up. Man, I prayed in the first service of someone who had an incredibly elderly woman who had a pinched nerve that's been giving her problems for years and years, keeping her from doing things in ministry she wants to. Another family who was actively super active here and got autoimmune stuff going on. I mean, I don't know what God's going to do in those situations, but I know what we're going to do.
No, we're gonna pray. We're gonna anoint with oil, and we're gonna ask God to do some incredible things today. Maybe you need to go get your kids, as soon as I pray, you need to go get your kids. Maybe you got somebody over there they need to be prayed over. I will tell you, you better bring your ticket because they will tackle you, okay?
So you don't just go walking in over there, all right? You know these guys. Big dudes, man. They've never missed a leg day, okay? They missed a few cardio days.
Okay. Never missed a leg day, all right? The security team. Hey, go get your kids, bring them in. Man, let's pray, let's have an incredible time together.
Here today, I'll close with this story, guys.
Some of y'all are. Or, like, man, do I have enough faith? Man, to come forward and even be prayed over today. I want you to know, I know what that's like. I want you to know there's things in my life that are going on that have me in a similar situation.
You know? And I catch this image. I caught this image about 10 days ago, and it's really helped me a lot. I feel like God does this sometimes. It's not like a vision, but you just, it's like an illustration in your mind.
It really helps. You know, you anchor it in your mind. And I remember I was camping with some guys at Mount Rogers. Just up the road, a couple hours up the road in Virginia. We were camping one night, three or four dudes, tent camping, just hiking, doing a big through hike kind of thing.
All of a sudden, dude, you know, we got the fire and we're eating our little mini stove, cooked stove thing, and we're doing the whole thing, and all of a sudden, deluge. I mean, 45 minutes of rain, just crazy. I mean, we're running, diving for our tents, trying to get not all soaked and all that stuff. 45 minutes later, the rain stops, and we all get out of our tents, very depressed. You know, camping's sort of boring without a fire to mess with at night, right?
And it's all just wet. And man, get up to the fire ring, not really a ring, but the stones that we have and stuff. I mean it's underwater.
Okay, I mean there's like water in the rain. And I get down right beside that thing. You guys probably know where this is going, and I just blow on it a little bit. I mean, 45 minutes of rain, I blow on that, and guess what? Embers.
The storm that was on the shore actually wasn't enough to put the fire all the way out. And you know what's awesome about being a believer? We have a promise. I don't care what storm. is on the shore.
If you truly are a believer, That fire is never going to go out. Doesn't mean it doesn't need to be whipped into a flame again. But it's not out. And I remember asking God even if you even even as recently as the last 10 days. Ugh God?
Here's the thing. I feel like it's just embers right now with some things that I'm going through, right? But God, I pray. that your Holy Spirit wind would blow on those embers. And build that fire a little more tomorrow than it is today.
build it a little more tomorrow than it is today. Hey, some of you guys, listen, some of you guys right now, you're clinging to life because you're going through a tragedy, and here's the deal. All that's left. And that fire right now you feel like is embers. Here's the good news: man, that's all you need.
That's all you need is a mustard seed of faith. It's not a roaring fire. It's a mustard seed. It's an ember.
So, my prayer for us today. is that you would take those little embers. Allow the Spirit to blow on them.
Okay. Come forward and let's do what the Bible tells us to do. Let's be prayed over. Let's ask for healing.
Some of you might just want to come down to the front if you're practicing intercessory prayer. You're praying for somebody else. But our elders are going to be lined up. Man, in the first service, we were lined all the way up to the wait for somebody. You know, wait for it to clear and then come back down, whatever.
But if you need prayer by one of the elders for healing, you come forward and we're going to pray over you.
Alright. Father, we ask right now. Lord, that you would give gifts of healing. Lord, we pray that you would do an incredible work today. more than we could ask or think.
Lord, we pray that you would open up. the skies, God, and just pour your blessing on this place. Father, we pray in faith, knowing that you can heal. We got, and God, we ask that you will. God, be compassionate toward us.
Let your heart break toward us today. Got to dispense healing just like Jairus' daughter. Just like this woman with the issue of blood. God, we believe you hold the power over sickness and death. We pray that you'll do it today.
In Christ's name, amen. Mm-hmm.
